Carrot Cider Cake

I really liked my wedding anniversary carrot cake, but also wanted to try this because apple cider in a cake just sounds lovely.

Notes:

• I used the large holes on my box grater to grate the carrots.
  

Verdict: This was delightful, especially with some leftover cream cheese icing spread over the top. The coworkers I shared it with also really liked it. I would absolutely make it again, and maybe add some raisins and pecans or walnuts because I love the kitchen-sink type carrot cake with all the things in it. I still dream about one my mom's friend brought us one time when I was a kid, and want to try to recreate it if I can. This might not be it but it's getting closer.

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RECIPE: Carrot Cake with Cider and Olive Oil (Smitten Kitchen)

Carrot Layer Cake

I make carrot cake so infrequently that I never remember which recipe I used. This is an attempt to stop that trend :) I know for sure I have used Orangette's recipe (a lot of work but good, and has a funny memory attached because my cat stood on it and ate a chunk of it through plastic wrap while it sat on the counter overnight).

I wanted to make a carrot layer cake for my partner and me for our 10th wedding anniversary celebration at home. Me having COVID and needing to quarantine kind of limited our plans a bit (we've hit double digits and wanted to do something extra special!) but I felt well enough to want to contribute somehow. I picked this recipe because it was small enough that I wouldn't have to do any math to refigure it for the size I wanted (6 in/15 cm diameter 2-layer cake) -- many recipes I found were either a single layer or 3 layers, and three pans seemed overwhelming to me dishes wise and also because the cake is only for 2 people. Plus I was still sick and made plans to do this the same day so I didn't want to overcomplicate things.

Shout out to the Great British Baking Show for being an eternal wellspring of motivation. It always seems to be able to give me a big push to get in the kitchen and actually make what I am thinking about making.

Notes:

• I did not have fresh ginger so I used 1/2 tsp of powdered.
  
• I used a different recipe for icing than the one the recipe suggests because I had ingredients bought before I picked a recipe, and I didn't plan for mascarpone. The Cream Cheese Frosting I used is really great structurally for building a layer cake, but after having it on a couple of cakes like this I think it might be a little too sugary/rich to use in such large quantities. (Normally I use it to decorate gingerbread cookies.) I halved the recipe and it frosted this cake generously, with a little bit (maybe 1/3 to 1/2 cup) left over.
• I decorated the cake with toasted walnuts and loved it, especially since there were no nuts in the cake itself. It adds something to offset the sweetness of the frosting.
  

Verdict: The cake itself baked a little funny -- parts of it looked straight up burnt when I pulled it out of the oven. Almost like the sugar started separating out from the batter. This might have been from the butter I used to grease the pans, too. However, the finished product ultimately tasted good, if a bit rich, and worked well as a layer cake. If making a layer cake will probably try a different recipe next time even if I have to do some math. And I really gotta stop using this cream cheese frosting, even though it's really good in smaller quantities on cookies.

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RECIPE: My Perfect Carrot Cake (I Am a Food Blog)

Avocado Salad with Carrot-Ginger Dressing

This sounded really good to me when it scrolled by, so I gave it a try!

Notes:

• Since the recipe is not very precise about how much of each ingredient to use I weighed mine out.
• 110 g carrot (95 g fully peeled/prepared)
  
• 17 g shallot (I would use even less next time, more like 10-12 g fully prepared)
  
• 15 g ginger
  

Verdict: I really liked it! I may use less shallot next time but I would definitely make it again. It's a fresh, bright tasting, and colorful addition to a salad.

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RECIPE: Avocado Salad with Carrot-Ginger Dressing

Warming Carrot Cauliflower Stew

I had a head of cauliflower and began looking for new recipes to use it in, and this one caught my eye because it is carrot based rather than tomato based.

Notes: I'm not sure what chile powder means here (like the spice blend that you use for making chili, or cayenne pepper, or what?). I didn't want it to be TOO spicy and there was already crushed red pepper flakes, so adding even more sharp heat with cayenne seemed like a bad idea. I put in some chili powder but then decided that was not the right flavor, and threw in a bunch of curry powder. I liked the curry powder. I used about 3/4 of a 1 lb bag of baby carrots instead of cutting whole ones into rounds because it's what I had. I used Better than Bouillon's No-Chicken Base + water instead of vegetable broth because I don't like the taste of most vegetable broth, especially if it's too strong. I topped it with chopped cilantro and ate it with some goat cheese toast.

Verdict: It tasted fine but not exceptional. I wouldn't go out of my way to make it again for the amount of work involved (pureeing the soup and especially separately roasting the cauliflower only to sog it up by throwing it in liquid). I didn't have chickpeas when I found the recipe and while I did end up buying some, I almost feel like this might be more delicious and texturally interesting with red lentils. I'm not sure whether you'd want to cook them in the soup after blending it, or cook them separately and add them in when you'd add the chickpeas.

RECIPE: Warming Carrot Cauliflower Stew